“Don’t worry, I’ve always been me.”

Qi Xia reached out and patted Qiao Jiajin’s shoulder, then turned back to look at Chen Junnan: “Originally I thought about abandoning you two and completing this matter myself, but now that I think about it, I really do need someone to control the final direction of this matter for me.”

“I’m useful too…?” Chen Junnan asked.

“You’ve always been useful.” Qi Xia said. “What you need to do next is the same as Fist—just rely on ‘intuition.'”

Then Qi Xia also reached out and patted Chen Junnan’s shoulder, as if he had made some kind of determination, then set off toward “Mouth of Heaven” with a serious expression.

The time now was neither early nor late, just about past “noon hour.” The situation was about what Qi Xia had predicted—”Heavenly-Horse” had not activated “Heavenly-Horse Moment” for two consecutive days.

And the vacant “Heavenly-Sheep” also couldn’t activate “Heavenly-Sheep Moment.” The next few hours would be safe.

However… who was “Heavenly-Monkey”?

After “Wei Hour” came “Shen Hour.” Would “Heavenly-Monkey” as the Shen Monkey make a move then?

A death moment concerning “intelligence” or “dexterity,” occurring precisely at dusk when people were most relaxed during the day—would the “Participants” need to run or flee then?

“Wait…” Qi Xia pondered again.

Since “Heavenly-level moments” could appear at dusk, what about at night?

If there was a “Heavenly-Rooster Moment” during You Hour, it would still be okay, after all it would be from five to seven in the evening. But the time after that would cause everyone’s mortality rate to climb.

The following Dog of Xu Hour, Pig of Hai Hour, Rat of Zi Hour, Ox of Chou Hour, and Tiger of Yin Hour—all the “Heavenly-level moments” would span from seven in the evening to five in the morning.

“The End” was unlike other locations. Once night fell, all the cities here would be like death. Because there was no moon and no electric lights, there would be not a trace of light visible.

He looked up at the time and accelerated toward “Mouth of Heaven.”

……

When the four of them, Qi Xia included, arrived at the entrance of “Mouth of Heaven,” they discovered there were even more people here than before. It seemed more and more people were gathering at “Mouth of Heaven.”

Among them, Qiao Jiajin even saw Li Xiangling, from whom he had been separated for a long time, as well as familiar faces like Jin Yuanxun and Aunt Tong.

The people at “Mouth of Heaven” appeared somewhat pleasantly surprised. They hadn’t expected that after consecutively experiencing “Heavenly-Horse Moment” and “Heavenly-Snake Moment,” all members had actually survived completely. However, some people’s memories seemed strange—although they survived, they couldn’t remember what happened during “Heavenly-Horse Moment” and “Heavenly-Snake Moment.”

But this wasn’t important to them. “Memory” was something quite mystical to them in the first place. Now everyone was gathering in small groups of twos and threes, talking about recent experiences.

Qiao Jiajin walked to the side to talk with Li Xiangling, while Qin Dingdong also entered the teaching building to find people.

Chen Junnan made a round on the playground, greeting dozens of people almost non-stop, but it seemed not many people recognized him.

He didn’t feel embarrassed either. After a round of socializing, he slowly walked to Qi Xia’s side and asked: “Old Qi, did you do this too?”

“What are you referring to?”

“I’m referring to things like ‘everyone surviving’ or ‘selective amnesia.'” Chen Junnan said.

“That’s right.” Qi Xia nodded. “I did it.”

“Is this necessary?” Chen Junnan asked with a frown. “You don’t even know these people, and these people won’t thank you for it. Why do you want to save them… Every time you activate your ‘ability,’ there are side effects, right?”

“It’s just an experiment.” Qi Xia said.

“This also needs an ‘experiment’?” Chen Junnan scratched his head and said. “You should have known long ago that your ability can ‘replicate’ a person out of thin air, right? Why still do this experiment?”

“The experiment I’m doing isn’t related to ‘replication,’ but related to ‘time.'” Qi Xia said.

“Time…?”

“Chen Junnan, whether it’s you… or those people on the playground who forgot the ‘Heavenly-level moments,’ you all basically have one thing in common.”

“What commonality?”

“Your memories from this cycle had one or two days extracted, but your existing memories can still connect before and after, and you haven’t lost your rationality.” Qi Xia said. “For you all, time has ‘fast-forwarded.'”

“Wait wait wait…” Chen Junnan decisively reached out to stop Qi Xia. “At which step did I fail to keep up? How did we ‘fast-forward’?”

“It’s literally what it means.” Qi Xia said. “If the ‘Heavenly-level moments’ are very dangerous, then I… helped these people ‘skip’ the ‘Heavenly-level moments.'”

“Holy shit…” Chen Junnan was stunned once again. “Wait, Old Qi, I feel something’s not right. These people died miserably in the ‘Heavenly-level moments.’ Isn’t your ‘fast-forward’ a bit flawed… Those people’s corpses are still lying on the ground…”

“This is only from our perspective.” Qi Xia said. “We observers see clearly and naturally know what happened, but for the parties involved in the event, this is clearly ‘fast-forwarding.’ Their memories directly skipped the ‘Heavenly-level moments,’ and they’re standing here perfectly fine.”

After listening, Chen Junnan’s expression clearly changed. He felt that what Qi Xia was saying seemed like something on a higher level, which he couldn’t understand for the moment.

“Don’t you think this experiment is a bit interesting?” Qi Xia said again. “If this happened in the real world, it indeed shouldn’t be called ‘fast-forwarding,’ but should be called ‘amnesia,’ because even if these people lost memories of a certain day, their age would still have increased. This doesn’t fit the concept of ‘fast-forwarding,’ so it can only be called ‘amnesia.’ But in ‘The End’ it’s different. Everyone’s time is stuck. Even if you skip ten days at once, this person’s age won’t change at all.”

“I really can’t keep up anymore.” Chen Junnan said. “This person clearly died miserably, but you replicated a new him to let him live, and extracted one day of memories. This is called ‘skipping one day’…? Although the logic sounds fucking right, I really feel something’s very strange…”

“It’s not strange, and I also said it just now.” Qi Xia said. “I’m trying to accurately and flawlessly ‘manipulate time.'”

“But what you’re manipulating isn’t ‘time’ at all!” Chen Junnan said. “You’re manipulating people!”

“People are time.” Qi Xia said. “From a macro perspective, all of our time being stuck is the same principle.”